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Made an interesting trip out to Hingham Square this week and looked at "The Samuel Lincoln House" right off the downtown. The current owners did a fine a job of restoring and transforming this 1700-built house into a showpiece that kept the best of the old with a seamless transition to the new. For you history buffs, Sam Lincoln was the great-great-great-great grandfather of Abe Lincoln. Yes, this illustrious family which spawned a president, three governors and a Revolutionary War general, first emigrated to Hingham in 1637. For $1.3 million, you can buy this historic gem, added to in 1869, that has four bedrooms and 4,100 square feet of living space. It's great to live in the city (I do), but I've seen new construction cookie-cutter condos in Boston for the same price and this house sure has those beat. It has all new systems, a chef's kitchen with a 400-bottle wine cooler, even a two-car garage unobtrusively added out back. The original living, dining and sitting rooms with pumpkin pine floors and leaded 12-over-12 windows have been left intact, but all seven of the house's fireplaces have been converted into gas. The Adams family's Peacefield is not for sale, but you can buy Sam Lincoln's place, one of several Lincoln family houses in Hingham's downtown area, for $311 a square foot. Look for the Home Showcase on this house on Saturday.

Took a tour around Hingham and there's a lot going on. The old shipyard project is underway, an urban village of apartments, condos and retail on Hingham Harbor where the ferry boat from Boston lands. A development across the street, Back River, near Bear Cove Park, has already sold 50 percent of its 45 units for an average price of $900,000, developer Tom Hastings told me. Not bad in this market, and a testament to the pent-up demand of empty-nesters who want to downsize but remain in Hingham.

Hingham Square, a quaint historic village with many clothing boutiques and some nice restaurants is also seeing some new townhome development now that "The Little Big Dig," i.e. the Greenbush commuter rail line tunnel under the square is completed.